In-depth study of Ancient Greek and Latin texts or authors of both literary and philosophical interest. Subjects may include, e.g., the comparison of a Greek and a Roman philosopher; close reading of the oeuvre, or part of an oeuvre, of one author; the literary and philosophical analysis of a collection of thematically and generically connected passages
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”
Code
PL3017
Name
GREEK & ROMAN KEY TEXTS
Credits
4
Pre-requisites
None
Co-requisites
None
Equivalencies
Can be taken twice for credit?
No
Discipline
PL (Philosophy)
Level
Undergraduate
Type
GE100
CAMS ID
2643
Last update with CAMS
You will acquire a basic overview of the history of the Hellenistic (c. 330-30 BCE) period and the Roman Republic (500-30 BCE), including political history, social history, and history of ideas
You will come away with a good idea of the literature of that time, having read samples of almost all great authors of that period
You will improve your vocabulary and your ability to read a significant amount of complex text from a different culture and time period
You will improve your critical, close reading skills, using basic techniques of historical source criticism and generic analysis
You will learn to apply methods of classical philology and new historicism to avoid anachronistic interpretations and to recognize the alterity of a different culture
You will begin to understand the key ideas of Hellenistic philosophy (Skepticism, Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism) and explore its reception in Rome (including some outlook on later Aristotelianism and Platonism)
You will gain some experience in tackling a difficult philosophical text and discussing it both as a philosophical argument (structure of argument, meaning of terms, validity, role in the context of a theory developed by the author, etc.) and a literary work (genre, audience, style and figures of style, text function,